Labyrinth
by False Nil
Summary: Twenty-six subjects of the Athena Plan. Let's take a look at their lives during these shadowy three years.
1. Turn 0: Prologue

**A/N: Recently watched this anime, sort of fell in love with it. So I suppose this is my way of showing my appreciation for it. I hope you enjoy this!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Zankyou no Terror or any related works. Just a fan, is all ^^**

I was sitting at my desk when I saw the silhouette in the window. It was the shadow of a child, like when you look at someone through a rice paper screen and they're staring your way, but the window was clear and there was nobody outside. Just a cold, full moon, and the silhouette on the window.

The first time I saw one, I nearly dropped my mug, and I did scream. I'm used to them by now, though; I've been seeing them for a few months now. Longer, if you include my dreams. I'm still not at ease when I see them, but I'm trying to deal with them in my own way.

"Back again?" I say softly, so as to not wake up my parents. The shadow doesn't respond. I didn't expect it to. I spin my laptop to face the window, showing to the window the blank document on my screen. "I'm going to try to write it all down. That's what you wanted, right? I hope this is enough for you."

The shadow doesn't reply or move in any way, but it does seem to fade away, until I'm no longer certain of what I saw. I decide to take it as acceptance. It doesn't matter, anyways; in large part, I'm doing this for myself.

I take a drink from my mug, and stare at the screen until I realize that I'm still putting things off. With a grimace, and some lingering reluctance, I get to the task of writing down what haunts my nights.

* * *

><p>A boy sits on an examination table, wearing a hospital gown. The room smells sharply of disinfectant, prickling his nose. Across from him are two uncomfortable-looking chairs, and to the right, a table with a sink. On top of that table are a few labelled containers, and an unlabeled folder containing a few papers. Above the sink is a cabinet with a glass front, with medical instruments behind. The room, otherwise, is undecorated, sterile white. The boy's clothes, that he'd worn before changing, had been taken out of the room by the doctor, who was now walking in the door.<p>

The doctor begins talking, but the boy isn't really listening, instead looking around that dull environment. He notes that one patch of wall seems lighter than another, briefly wonders why, before changing his gaze. Then, the doctor puts her hand on his arm, and he blinks and turns to her.

"From today onwards, your name will be Twelve. Can you remember that?"

The boy rolls his eyes, briefly considers sticking out his tongue but doesn't. "I am Twelve," he recites, instead, and is rewarded with a slight smile.

"Of course you remember- I should've known who I was talking to." He cocks his head, hearing that, but she's already continued on. "Well then, let's go and meet the others, Twelve."

* * *

><p>In another place, not far away, another boy sits on another examination table. He's also wearing a hospital gown, but in his hands he clutches something small. He stares at the wall, looking calm, but a furrowed brow and slight trembling prove the lie to that. Nearby, the doctor- a male one- frets by the sink, talking into a cellphone.<p>

"Yes. No. Alright." He puts his phone down, glances at the boy, and can't help remarking to himself how delicate the child looks. Then, after scribbling a word on his folder, he walks over to the boy. "Your name is Nine, now. Can you remember that?"

"Of course," says the boy matter-of-factly. "Are we done?"

The doctor blinks in uncertainty, and says, "Yes."

"Well, then, let's go." The boy hops off the table and looks at the doctor expectantly. The doctor leads the way, inwardly wondering if he himself had ever been like that as a child.

* * *

><p>Somewhere else close by, a girl is following her doctor. Under her breath, she is muttering a jumble of words. Her eyes flicker to the folder tucked between the doctor's arm and torso, and the words "Twenty-four" tumble out, soon lost in the storm of words tumbling out of her mouth. Her doctor glances at her over his shoulder, then looks forwards again. They pass by another doctor headed to the room they'd just vacated, carrying an unlabeled folder.<p>

* * *

><p>Elsewhere, a girl dressed in a plain white dress looks up from the floor. A man in the door tells her, "We'll be moving you in an hour." The girl nods and goes back to playing, her fluffy white hair hiding her violet eyes as she looks down. The door closes.<p>

* * *

><p>Later in the day, twenty-six children sit in a semi-circle in front of a whiteboard. Many of them are fidgeting, or not paying attention to the stern-looking woman standing at the front. That will change, but for now, allow them their innocence. They'll lose it in bits and pieces as time goes by.<p>

* * *

><p>I roll my seat back and yawn widely. Surprisingly, an hour has already passed. It's harder than I thought it would be, writing this. But I suppose this is a good start. I'll save it, go to sleep, and work on it tomorrow.<p>

**A/N: This is just the prologue. I don't know how fast I'll pull these out, but I hope I can at least do the first chapter by the end of the week.**


	2. Turn 1: The First Day

**A/N: As promised, the first chapter. Cheers!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Zankyou no Terror or any related works. Kinda wish I did, though. **

It's night again. I haven't seen the shadow all day, but that's pretty normal. Night is when they come.

I've eaten dinner, done all my work, showered. I walk in my room, stop in my tracks. There's no shadow in the window, today, but there's a smudge of something in my closet. I grit my teeth and glue my eyes to my desk, and walk to it. I pull my chair out, roughly, and open my laptop. As I open my document, I can't help but glance to the side; and yep, there it is. The silhouette of a child is there, watching me. I try to ignore it, best as I can, and after a while, the task of typing absorbs me.

* * *

><p>Twenty-six children sit in a multi-layered semi-circle in front of a whiteboard. Many of them are fidgeting, or not paying attention to the stern-looking woman standing at the front. A few stare listlessly at the floor, or into the distance; there is a space between them and the rest of the children, as if they are unconsciously shunned. The rest are watching and listening intently, or, in the case of one boy, trying to.<p>

Nine has learnt his lesson early in life. He knows that you have to always pay attention, listen to instructions, to not miss anything that might give you an edge over the others. He doesn't hate any of the other children yet- after all, he knows nothing about them- but he's well on his way to hating the boy sitting in the row in front of him. All Nine wants to do is watch and listen to the woman at the front so he can do well on the tests, but this boy's head is in the way. Normally, he'd just shift so he could get a better view, but the boy in front of him keeps moving his head left and right, looking, Nine thinks, everywhere BUT the woman. To make matters worse, the boy had long, messy, curly brown hair, making it even harder to look past him.

Nine finally grows annoyed enough with the boy in front of him that he pokes him in the back, and hisses, "Stop moving!" The poked boy turns around to look at him with a confused look on his face, as if he didn't hear what Nine said. The other children turn to look at him, too. He had not been very quiet. The lady at the front turns to stare accusingly at Nine, and he blushes and shrinks back.

"I see we'll have to fit in some discipline training into the schedule," she says, before continuing on with her speech.

The girl next to Nine looks from him to another girl, in the row in front of them. As it happens, that girl is looking back. The sisters share a secret smile with each other.

A few places down in the row, one of the children who'd been staring at the ground looks up. Five looks at Nine for a second, and thinks to herself that that might be the prettiest girl she'd ever seen. She has not seen many. Her head drops back down again.

Near the front, a boy sitting in spot Twenty-Five looks askance at the girl next to him. She is muttering under her breath- it almost sounds like she's having a conversation with herself. He inches away from her as much as he can, before going back to playing with his shirt, trying to ignore her. He doesn't realize, but the boy on his other side is frowning at him; he'd unknowingly shifted onto the other boy's gown, pinning it in place.

Several minutes pass before the lady finishes talking. Privately, she doubts that the children heard half of what she said, but she'd expected that. They'll learn in time, and it is quite a bit to swallow, even for an adult. She claps her hands to bring the children to attention, and tells them where to go and who to follow for now.

One child is asleep- he's come a long way to the facility. A doctor has to shake him awake to bring him to individual testing.

* * *

><p>The children are brought to a large room that leads into several smaller rooms. The room is mostly empty, and the plaster is new. This is the only time the children will all come into this area; the space will soon be converted into administrative offices, and the individual tests will be performed at a different location. The project has just begun, however; construction on the final wing is only finishing up even now.<p>

In the middle of that bare room is a table with some crayons and construction paper. Nearby is a bead maze. In this, the researchers show an incomplete understanding of the children they're in charge of.

Two girls and a boy go to the crayons and almost immediately begin to fight over colours of crayon. One intern is sent to fetch more crayons, or buy some if he can't find any.

Most of the other children have already come together into two large groups. One group already seems to be becoming fast friends, centered around a boy with a plain but cheerful face. The other group has, naturally, clustered around the girl with white hair.

"That's soooooo cool!"

"Are you from the same place as Auntie Nakamura?"

"The sister said you get white hair only if you're old. Are you old?"

"Can I touch it?"

Five looks around, bewildered. She doesn't know what to do. She'd never encountered anything like this in her life, before, but she tries to answer anyways, as if each and every question were asked by an adult. She can't _quite_ answer a question every second, though.

A few children are standing apart from the others. Nine is one of them, playing idly with the bead maze as he watches the others. He wants to go look at Five as well, but doesn't want to stoop to that level, and besides, the boy who'd been blocking his view the whole time was there, and Nine doesn't want join him. He doesn't want to join the other group, either- he dislikes the cheerful-looking boy for so quickly becoming the centre of attention. Neither will he talk to the other children standing apart; they all bother him for different reasons. So, he stands there playing, aloof and alone.

A girl stands alone, too. She's no longer muttering to herself under her breath, but is instead staring intently, almost glaring, at the other children. Nobody who notices dares go near her. Nobody but herself knows that, behind those hawk's eyes, she's imagining the people she sees as fairy tale characters. A dashing prince here, a lady in a tower there, a band of heroes over there.

One of the boys who was going through testing comes out. The researcher calls for Five. She obediently gets up and leaves, to a series of groans from the children around her. The group starts to fragment into pieces, most of them gathering around the other group. One girl goes straight to her sister, grabbing her hand.

One boy in the larger group takes a step back and looks around the room, pausing briefly on every person he sees. He smiles when he sees that Nine is staring back, but becomes unsettled when he sees Twenty-Four staring at him.

The testing is not yet done by dinnertime.

* * *

><p>The children are brought to a large hall, bare and blandly coloured like the rest of the facility, with a pair of tables. Assistants bring out identical dinners for the children to eat.<p>

"Finish in twenty minutes, children!" a smiling, young woman tells them.

They're done in fifteen minutes. This food is better than anything many of the children have tasted before. A couple children refuse to eat their vegetables, or their fish. The adults don't do anything about it today, but will in the future.

After they're done, they're sent back to individual testing.

* * *

><p>It's night time. Individual testing has just finished. The stern lady from before came back, at the end, and told the children they would be split into groups the next morning. They're then sent to bed; boys in one room, girls in another.<p>

Twelve is in the middle of buttoning up his pajama-shirt when he realizes he's being stared at from the next bed. It's the boy from earlier. Twelve stops his buttoning and half-runs to the bathroom, shirt still half-open.

The boy across from Nine, Twenty-Five, is half-talking to Twenty-Six, but notices Twelve leaving. He tilts his head- he vaguely remembers something about bathroom use at night, but can't fully recall it. Instead, he looks at Nine, who is getting into bed, expressionless.

A couple beds down, a boy sitting on the bed labelled Eighteen also notices Twelve leaving. He goes back to his conversation with cheerful Seventeen and pudgy Fifteen as if nothing has happened.

It'll be another twenty minutes before a researcher finds a lost Twelve and brings him back. By then, the boys will all be asleep.

* * *

><p>The girls are, perhaps surprisingly, more rowdy than boys. Two of them, from older girls in their past lives, know about sleepovers, albeit edited by an 8-year-old's mind. They begin a pillow fight that draws almost all of the girls in. Here, a pack of three are in a momentary stand-off, unsure of who to hit, until an outsider hits one of them and the deadlock collapses. There, a timid-looking girl hides behind an older girl, but darts out every once in a while to smack someone trying to get in while her sister is distracted.<p>

Five is not quite ready to engage in something so carefree- she can't see the appeal in it, but she does wonder why the others find it so fun. She doesn't yet realize it, but for the first time in her life, she's wondering if she's missing out on something.

The girl sitting at bed Three is also not participating, but for more physical reasons. She has a gimp foot, so she sits on her bed, jealous of the others.

Twenty-Four is participating, but pulls back after a moment to watch the others. She's just in time, too- a matron comes by to see what's causing the commotion, and scolds them all to sleep.

Thus ends the first day.

* * *

><p>I glance at the clock. It's a bit after my bedtime. I was hoping I'd be able to get further, but this is an okay place to stop. It's a little selfish, but I think it's only natural that I've focused on the children most important to me. I hope I can do all twenty-six of them justice eventually.<p>

I realize that I hadn't looked for the shadow in hours. I turn to the closet, hesitantly. But it's gone. There's nothing on my window either. Maybe I can get some peace tonight.

**A/N: ** **And there we go. Main characters touched upon in one way or another, hints dropped about certain pasts, etc. This chapter is surprisingly short to me (especially considering how long I spent on it) who usually writes rather looooong chapters, but I think it's because of a change in writing style. If it really, really bothers me, I might add more to the end- but it'll probably just be a chapter 2 coming up. **


	3. Turn 2: Group 2

**A/N: In a bit of a writing frenzy right now XD. **

**Quick clarification due to an oversight (that I may retroactively fix): there are 16 boys and 10 girls in the program. **

**Another quick note: As per my convention, any full names given will be First Name, Last name. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Zankyou no Terror or any related works. Except this one, I guess? (goes off to check copyright laws)**

I get to my desk a little earlier than usual. I'm feeling lighter today; everything just seemed easier to do. I flew through my work, hardly pausing at all. The whole day felt easier. I haven't seen any shadow today, but as I open the document, I can't help but glance at the window another time, just to be sure-

What?

There's more of them now. One, two… Six. There are six silhouettes there, watching me, staring at me. Why?

Jerkily, I get up and take an awkward step towards the window. They fade instantly, as if they hadn't been real, just an optical illusion. I sink back into my chair, put my headphones in, and blast my eardrums with music.

It's another fifteen minutes until I recover enough to continue writing.

* * *

><p>The boys wake up to the sound of a loud banging, followed by a woman's voice shouting, "Rise and shine, boys! Get up, all of you! No time to dawdle! Breakfast is in fifteen minutes!"<p>

A few of the boys are up and off their beds in seconds. Nine is one of them, but he's surprised to realize that Four, Eight, Seventeen, and Eighteen are just as fast, if not faster. He quickly puts on his gown, determined to be the first one ready.

Some of the other boys are getting up groggily. Nineteen is in the middle of putting his gown on backwards, and Twelve is sitting on his bed with rumpled hair; for once, he's not looking in every direction, but is instead groggily squinting at the wall above Twenty-Six's bed. Two of the boys try to go back to bed, but the matron yanks the blankets off of Twenty-Five and Twenty-Six.

"Come on, children! We've got a busy day ahead of us!" More or less obediently, the boys follow the matron out of the room like a flock of ducklings.

* * *

><p>The girls are woken up in much the same way. Three and Twenty are both able to get up quickly, followed closely by Sixteen and Ten, who, sometime in the night, started sharing the same bed. Five was already awake, but gets up slowly, completely disinterested in breakfast.<p>

The other girls all get up eventually, with various amounts of grumbling. Interestingly, the last girl ready isn't Two, who's a bit spoiled and stayed up late talking with Three, but is Twenty-Four, who's already been awake for half an hour. She woke up when Ten moved from her own bed to Sixteen's, and hasn't gone back to sleep since. Instead, she stared at an unfamiliar ceiling, with a feeling in her chest that she couldn't define, but thought might be called homesickness.

* * *

><p>The children file into the dining hall. Nearby trolleys hold their meals, arranged on plates and covered in plastic wrap. One child takes a step forwards when he sees this; the matron keeps him in line. The young lady they'd seen last dinner comes to stand in front of them. She begins the morning's announcements; this is something that will happen before every meal.<p>

"Since some of the adults aren't here yet, you'll be divided into groups. You'll be with your group for most of the day. Assignments are up here." She points to a sheet of paper taped hastily onto the wall. "I'll give you your nametag during breakfast, as well as our special medical bracelets. You need to keep both on at all times, for the first week. The adult in charge of your groups will pick you up after you brush your teeth."

Some of the children aren't listening. That's only to be expected, really. The researcher sighs, but allows the children to sit down, and signals the assistants to serve breakfast. The researcher goes around, ignoring the pangs in her own stomach. She hasn't had time yet to eat breakfast. There's a bit of commotion as a boy tastes the yogurt and realizes it's not the sweet convenience store type. The assistants who aren't in charge of that table hide a smile at Thirteen's over-the-top antics.

* * *

><p>Twenty-Five stops in the door, making Nine bump into him. "Hold on. <em>She's<em> in my group?" he exclaims, pointing at Twenty-Four. "I don't want her to be in my group! She's weird!"

The flustered-looking lady puts a hand up, nudging her glasses back into place. "Now, wait a second, uh, Twenty-Five…" She hardly gets anywhere at all before she's cut off by Twenty-Four.

"Says who? You? HAH!" She turns away from him, crossing her arms. "Maybe I don't wanna be with you, either! You're too _loud_!"

Twenty-Five swells up like a toad before shouting back. The researcher in charge of them tries to calm them down, to no immediate success. Ten's shrunk back a bit, and has a worried look on her face, while Five merely looks apathetic and bored. Twelve dove for the table as soon as the shouting started, and is now watching from behind a chair.

Nine stands apart from the others, by the door, annoyed at the fight. He notices Twelve staring at him out of the corner of his eye, but when he turns to the table, the other boy's already gone back to watching the row.

Nine also turns back, just in time to catch something their supervisor says. "Wait, hold on, that can't be right. The groups are divided by intelligence?" There's a note in his voice that makes Twenty-Four and Twenty-Five stop and look at him.

"Well, not precisely." At first, the supervisor seems to wilt under his gaze, but grows confident again as she consults her clipboard. "They're based on the rankings in the tests we did. That includes intelligence, but also logical reasoning, problem solving-"

"But we're Group Two!" The lady blinks and turns back to him.

"Yes. You six are the seventh to… sorry, eighth to thirteenth places." Her voice falters. She's staring at Nine, who's looking at the ground with his fists clenched, body shaking. She's not sure of what to do, but tries to console him in her own way. "They're not strict rankings; your performance on future tests will change your placements. We just needed a way to split you into groups, that's all."

Her words have no apparent effect, and she grows flustered again. "Well, let's get started, anyways; we don't have much time." She flips through her pages, frowns, then flips through them again. Then, her face falls. "Hold on, children- stay here for a moment. I'll be right back." She rushes out the door.

Except for Nine and Five, the children all look at each other. Twenty-Five scowls. "I don't wanna do any tests," he says grumpily. "I wonder if there's anywhere we can go to play?" He sticks his head out the door, but ducks back in when he notices a pair of men in lab coats walking down the hallway.

Twelve shakes his head. "Dorm mom's to the left, and there's lotsa guys in white coats on the right. I don't think they'll let us go play right now."

"We can _try_, though," Twenty-Five insists. He assumes a pose, hands on his hips and spine straight, as if imitating somebody. " 'Nothing ventured, nothing gained!' "

Hesitantly, Ten raises her hand and speaks up. "I don't think we should. The lady might get mad at us, and I don't want that."

Twenty-Five scowls again. "Come on. What's she going to do to us?" Ten shakes her head, not saying anything. "Doesn't anyone agree with me? How 'bout you, Nine?" Twenty-Five blinks as Nine looks up from the floor and their eyes meet. Something about the other boy's expression makes Twenty-Five forgot why he asked in the first place. "Nine? Are-"

He's cut off by Twenty-Four, who cuts in brusquely. Her eyebrows are furrowed and her face is as dark as a storm cloud. "What are your names, everyone? Your _real_ names?"

Annoyed at being interrupted, Twenty-Five turns back to her and says, "These _are_ our names, now, stupid Twenty-Four." He scrunches his face and sticks his tongue out at her.

She gives him a death glare that doesn't faze him one bit. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to- your name's probably dumb. But I don't want to know you guys as numbers."

Ten speaks up again, looking surprised at herself. "I agree. I want to get to know you guys, too."

Twenty-Five shifts his frown to Ten, but before he can say anything, Twelve pipes up. "I wanna do this, too. Okay. My name is Satoshi Nakamoto."

"Satoshi Nakamoto," murmurs Twenty-Four. Ten and Twenty-Five can be seen mouthing the name, and Five looks up, a spark of curiosity in her eyes. Nine blinks out of his fugue at the unfamiliar name, and glances at the other boy, whose eyes have already started to wander.

Nine takes a step forward, boldly. "My name is Kei Kurokawa."

And flushes a moment later, as Twenty-Four puts up a finger and says, "Kei… Hmm… You're a boy, right?"

"Yes, I am," he states, not _quite_ shouting. Twenty-Four doesn't seem to notice his reaction- she nods, as if in satisfaction, and then turns to Ten- but Nine catches a flash of a grin on Twenty-Five's face. Burning with embarrassment, he buries his face in his arms, hoping none of them see the red on his cheeks.

Ten is staring at Nine with a look of concern on her face, but jumps as Twenty-Four pokes her. Caught by surprise, she stutters, "M-my name is Haruko Hisami."

"Hisami?" Nine is looking up from his arms now; most of the red is gone from his face. "I thought it was a first name."

Ten shakes her head. "I don't know. First name, last name- I've never met another Hisami. But it's my family's name."

Twenty-Four nods again and turns to Twenty-Five. Who frowns and says, "I don't mind telling the others, but I don't want to tell you."

Twenty-Four scowls at him. "Fine! I didn't want to hear your name, anyways."

Ten puts herself between the two, trying to diffuse the tension. Then, Nine speaks up. "But I already know your name."

Twenty-Five blinks and turns to him. "You do?"

"Yeah. I could hear you and Twenty-Six telling each other last night. Isn't your name Ar-"

"OI!" Twenty-Five shouts. He glares at Nine, then sighs. "Fine. I'll say it myself." He takes a breath, and says, "My name is Arata Uehara." He glares at Twenty-Four, as if he's expecting her to laugh.

She doesn't. Instead, she simply nods, and turns to Five. "How about you?"

Five points to herself, as if she can't quite believe she's being included in the conversation. "Me?"

"Mmmhmm."

"I'm Five."

The other children frown, and Twenty-Five says, "No, your name, from before you came here, silly."

Five blinks at them. "But, I'm Five. I was Five before I came here, and I am Five right now, too."

What would normally be a depressing and revealing statement is met by confusion from the still-emotionally immature children. Nine shares a glance with Ten, and looks at Twelve just as Twelve begins to look back at Five. Twenty-Four is still frowning, and she sounds like she's just eaten something bitter when she says, "Okay. I guess we call you Five, then. My name is Rika Fujiwara. Call me Rika, please."

The others are in the process of nodding when Twelve opens his mouth. "I think we should call each other by our numbers," he says, avoiding Twenty-Four's sharp gaze. She appears to be about to round on him, but Ten speaks up first.

"How come?" she asks gently, genuinely curious.

"I remember- one of the dorm moms asked the other, 'what if they use their real names?' And the other said, 'they'll be punished. These are their names now. They have to forget their old ones.' "

None of the others are happy to hear this, but nobody's sure what to do about it. It's Nine who offers the compromise. "Then, how 'bout, when we're around adults, we'll call each other by our numbers, but if we're alone, we use each other's names?"

Nobody looks truly content, but everybody's nodding, except for Five, who's watching the rest of them curiously. Ten blinks, and turns to the door. "I think she's coming back."

"Who?"

"The lady; the one who left earlier." The rest of them can hear the footsteps now, coming down the hall. A moment later, the woman rushes back in, papers flapping in her arms. "Sorry, sorry. I locked myself out and- well, that's not important." She visibly attempts to regather her focus. "Okay. Normally, we'd have classes right now, but since your teacher hasn't arrived yet," (grimace) "we're going to get a head start on the logic puzzles for this afternoon. Each one of you will get a sheet and pencils- find a seat anywhere in the room and try to solve as many of them as you can."

She's in the process of distributing papers out when Nine blurts out, "Uh!" He bites his lip, but the lady's already turned to him, and he decided he wanted to take the lead, so he can't back down now. "Er… Auntie? What do we call you?"

"Um." The researcher is obviously taken by surprise. "My last name is Yamaguchi, so I guess you can call me Ms. Yamaguchi."

Twelve's happy to use her name rightaway. "Ms. Yamaguchi? How long do we have to do these puzzles?"

The lady's starting to frown- she doesn't seem to be the type that likes questions. "For as long as I tell you to." She seems to realize how inadequate that sounds, and her eyes soften a little around the edges. "But it'll probably be about an hour."

Twelve pouts, and Twenty-Five groans loudly. They don't really have any other choice, though, and they all eventually settle down and start reading. Nine is the first one to sit down- he actually feels excited to have something to do, to stretch his mental muscles. He quickly scans the first two questions.

Anna's mom has four children. The first child is called April. The second is called May. The third is called June. What is the name of the fourth child?

A frog is at the bottom of a 15 metre well. Every day, he jumps up three metres, and every night, he slides down two metres. How many days does it take until he reaches the top of the well?

He grins and thinks to himself: _these are too easy_. He writes down "July" and "15," and continues through the worksheet.

He ends up putting his pencil down after about half an hour. He looks around, and sees that nobody else is done. He's feeling satisfied with himself when Ms. Yamaguchi walks by and tells him his answers are incorrect.

He looks back at the first question. It takes him a minute, but to his horror, realizes that he has indeed made a mistake. He quickly scratches out July and replaces it with "Anna" before continuing. He's not even halfway through the questions when Ms. Yamaguchi calls for their attention so she can show the solutions.

None of the children have finished their sheets. Five has only answered the first few questions and half-heartedly scribbled something illegible on the next, but everything that can be read is correct- as if she'd seen the questions before. Twelve's sheet is haphazardly answered- a question or two is skipped here and there- but his answers are also correct. Ten, Twenty-Four, and Twenty-Five all have worked a little past the midway point, but they all have some mistakes in their answers, as if they haven't had time yet to go back and check.

With the exception of Five, the other children all listen attentively to the solutions. Five is listening, but looks uncaring, almost bored. Her expression doesn't change, even when the solutions are cut short and the children are brought to lunch.

* * *

><p>The children file into the dining hall again. The lady tells them that, after lunch, they'll be doing physical activity and games. Many of the children perk up, hearing the first, and most of the rest perk up, hearing the second. A few smiles break out, and one brave kid even cheers before being shushed back into embarrassed silence.<p>

Once released, the children descend onto their food like a pack of hyenas. Their lunch consists of fish and a few side-dishes, including gyoza. Children who try to pick up gyoza with their hands are admonished by the supervisors, but those small embarrassments are soon forgotten. There's something to look forward to in the afternoon.

Afternoon activities won't exactly be what they were hoping for, but with so many different people's hopes, that was never possible anyways.

* * *

><p>I lean back in my chair. It's not quite bedtime yet- there's still another half-hour or so. There's a sensation in my fingers that, should I continue, will transform into soreness, but that's not why I stopped. I stopped because I wasn't sure how to continue- how I could possibly do twenty other children justice. Hell, I'm not even sure I can do these six justice. But I'll try to find a way. There's no way I'll stop here.<p>

I do end here for the night, though. Half an hour is not long enough for me to introduce the other children, and I need to do some thinking on it, anyways.

**A/N: We're starting to get into the meat of the story, so this is going to become the place where I talk about stuff that I won't be able to cover in the actual story. That will probably sometimes include stuff that won't be relevant until later chapters, but might provide a hint to stuff that happens. (It's not intentional, but my form of writing sometimes falls back onto established world-building, and I'll be less tempted to change my own canon if I spell it out formally in a place like this.) It also prevents excess infodumping in the main story. A few things, then:**

**There are a total of 4 groups; three contain six children, one contains seven children, and one child isn't part of a group for various reasons. Group 1 is the most intelligent, while Group 4 is the least intelligent. Group 3's supervisor is male, while the others are all female. (Generally, distribution of staff is nearly even gender-wise, but there are more women in the hands-on division of staff, i.e. matrons, and more men in the administrative and observational branches). **

**The daily schedule for the children, while covered in part in-story, isn't completely clarified, so I'll talk about it here. It looks roughly like this: classes, music lessons, individual tutoring/study in the morning, testing/puzzles, physical activity, and games in the afternoon, and relaxation time at night (i.e. baths, free time). Classes are done in groups (originally everyone together, but they realized it might be more effective tailoring classes depending on intelligence), music lessons are individual and are alternated with individual study/tutoring, a.k.a. if you're doing music, someone else is doing individual study and you'll switch. Testing is individual and done on a bidaily basis- kids who are on off days do logic puzzles and other stuff instead- physical activity is everyone but organized by group, and games are everyone all together and is limited mainly to stuff like chess and shogi. Free time isn't really free, but is more for the kids to work on their own particular specialty if they have one, i.e. musicians. Eight is an exception in terms of morning activities, but I'll cover that later. Privacy exists and will always exist, but between the bracelets and the staff trickling in, it'll disappear in large part. **

**The names given are, of course, all either shoutouts or meaningful/will be meaningful in some way. I'm no expert, though, so feel free to shout at me for misuse or incorrect meaning or whatnot XD.**

**As you might've concluded, Five is not normal, even among the twenty-six genius kids. I won't cover it here, but let's just say, the Athena Plan is not nearly the worst or most morally bankrupt experiment out there.**

**On a similar note, yes, Twelve is ADHD; he did well on the tests in large part because of his photographic memory, paired with the fact that his orphanage was run by a former teacher. He's not the only one with a significant condition, either, but those kids I'll cover later, and so won't say anything more here.**

**Oh, and one final thing I guess. They don't really sound like 6-8 year olds, huh? (Well, Group 2's all 7-8 but whatever). I mean, sure, they're all geniuses for their age, and the in-story author might not be able to write in a child's voice and mentally edit their voices, so on and so forth- there's a bunch of fair reasons- but the major factors are that one, it's hard to write in a kid's voice, and two, it can also be hard to make a kid's story interesting. A.k.a. this is in large part because of my deficiencies as a writer, so, I apologize to anyone who was hoping for a story like that :(. And yes, the in-story author is definitely channeling a part of me as I write this XD**


End file.
